Mourning The Loss of FilmStruck

Turner and Warner Bros. Digital Networks announced October 26, 2018 that FilmStruck is shutting down at the end of November.

FilmStruck has been a fantastic service. As a hardcore film buff, it has always been FilmStruck that I go to first for classic films.

Sorry folks, FilmStruck is going away. Over the past 60 days, I have noticed that Netflix and HBO are not my first choice for movies.

There will be nothing like FilmStruck ever again, thanks for letting me vent.

Major filmmakers such as Guillermo del Toro, Barry Jenkins, and Edgar Wright have already lamented the upcoming loss of FilmStruck, the streaming service for foreign cinema and classic film, and now cinephiles are rallying to save the platform. An online petition entitled “Keep FilmStruck Alive” launched in the wake of the announcement of FilmStruck’s closing and has earned over 5,300 signatures and counting. The petition is seeking 7,500 total signatures.

“FilmStruck has given cinephiles an indispensable resource for appreciating cinema, and provided so much joy to all those who thought that many of these movies would never see the light of a streaming platform,” petition leader Kevin Bahr wrote in a statement. “FilmStruck is not just a niche market, it is a massive archive dedicated to keeping art of the past alive. … It deserves to live, not only to provide an outlet for film lovers of the past but also to create new fans through the next several generations, and perhaps open some more eyes along the way.”

The Philadelphia Story, a Hollywood Classic is typical of what is shown at FilmStruck. Not only does FilmStruck stream world class movies, but they also provide a lot of trailers, documentaries, and commentaries on most of these films.